ROMANS 3:21-31

AT the opening of his discussion, ch. 1:16, 17, Paul had announced that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, because therein is the righteousness of God revealed. He had said that the righteous by faith shall live, intimating that there is no other way of obtaining life. In proof of this, he had declared that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, and had shown at large that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, and that, therefore, by obedience to law no flesh shall be justified. He now proceeds to speak more particularly of the righteousness of God provided for man’s justification, describing the manner in which it is conferred, and the character of those by whom it is received. To this subject, therefore, he here reverts.

Ver. 21. — But now the righteousness of God without law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Now, — that is to say, under the preaching of the Gospel — in the period of the revelation of the Messiah; for it denotes the time present, in opposition to that time when God appeared not to take notice of the state of the Gentile nations as it is said, Acts 17:30, ‘The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.’ And also in opposition to the legal economy respecting the Jews, as again it is said, John 1:17, ‘The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.’ This is what the Scriptures call ‘ the fullness of times,’ Ephesians 1:10; Galatians 4:4. ‘The last days,’ Isaiah 2:2; Hebrews 1:2; Acts 2:17; 1 John 2:18. ‘The acceptable year of the Lord,’ Isaiah 61:2. ‘Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,’ 2 Corinthians 6:2. The day of the Savior that Abraham saw, John 8:56. The righteousness of God. — This is one of the most important expressions in the Scriptures. It frequently occurs both in the Old Testament and the New; it stands connected with the argument of the whole of the first five chapters of this Epistle, and signifies that fulfillment of the law which God has provided, by the imputation of which sinners are saved. Although perfectly clear in itself, its meaning has been involved in much obscurity by the learned labors of some who know not the truth, and by the perversions of others by whom it has been greatly corrupted.

By many it has been misunderstood, and has in general been very slightly noticed even by those whose views on the subject are correct and scriptural. To consider its real signification is the more necessary, as it does not appear always to receive that attention from Christians which its importance demands. When the question is put, why is the Gospel the power of God unto salvation? how few give the clear and unfaltering answer of the Apostle, Because therein is THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD revealed. Before attending to the true import of this phrase, it is proper to advert to some of the significations erroneously attached to it. Of these I shall select only a few examples from many that might be furnished.

Origin understood by this righteousness God’s attribute of justice, while Chrysostom explained it as Divine clemency.

According to Dr. Campbell of Aberdeen, the righteousness of God consists in man’s conformity to the declared will of God. In his note on Matthew 6:33, he says, ‘The righteousness of God, in our idiom, can mean only the justice or moral rectitude of the Divine nature, which it were absurd in us to seek, it being, as all God’s attributes are, inseparable from His essence. But in the Hebrew idiom, that righteousness, which consists in a conformity to the declared will of God, is called His righteousness. In this way the phrase is used by Paul, Romans 3:21,22; 10:3, where the righteousness of God is opposed by the Apostle to that of the unconverted Jews; and their own righteousness, which he tells us they went about to establish, does not appear to signify their personal righteousness, any more than the righteousness of God signifies His personal righteousness. The word righteousness, as I conceive, denotes there what we should call a system of morality or righteousness, which he denominates their own, because fabricated by themselves, founded partly on the letter of the law, partly on tradition, and consisting mostly in ceremonies and mere externals. ‘This creature of their own imaginations they had cherished, to the neglect of that purer scheme of morality which was truly of God, which they might have learned even formerly from the law and the Prophets, properly understood, but now more explicitly from the doctrine of Christ.’

Such is the explanation by this learned critic of that leading phrase, ‘the righteousness of God,’ according to which, the reason why the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, is, because therein a pure schemes of morality is revealed. Were this explanation just, so far from being the reason why the Gospel should be the means of salvation to sinners, it would be the cause of their universal and hopeless condemnation.

Dr. Macknight supposes that the righteousness of God signifies a righteousness belonging to faith itself, and not the righteousness conveyed and received by faith. ‘Righteousness by faith,’ he says, on Romans 3:22, ‘is called the righteousness of God, — 1st , Because God hath enjoined faith as the righteousness which He will count to sinners, and hath declared that He will accept and reward it as righteousness; 2nd , Because it stands in opposition to the righteousness of men, which consists in a sinless obedience to the law of God.’ Thus, while Dr. Macknight differs from Dr. Campbell in the meaning of the expression, the righteousness of God, he so far coincides with him in his radical error as to suppose that it does not signify the righteousness which God provides for the salvation of sinners, but the righteousness which He requires them to perform. The explanations of both of these writers are destructive of the Scripture doctrine of justification, opposed to the justice of God, subversive of the plan of salvation, and render the whole train of the Apostle’s reasoning, from Romans 1:16 to the end of the fifth chapter, inconclusive and self contradictory.

Archbishop Newcombe, whose translations are so much eulogized by Socinians, together with many who have followed him, translates this phrase, ‘God’s method of justification.’ What the Apostle has declared in precise terms, is thus converted into a general and indefinite annunciation, pointing to a different sense. In the Socinian version, as might be anticipated, it is also translated, ‘God’s method of justification.’ ‘The righteousness of God’ cannot mean God’s method of justification nor the justification which God bestows, because the word translated righteousness does not signify justification. Righteousness and justification are two things quite different. God’s righteousness is revealed in the Gospel, just as God Himself is said to be revealed. To reveal God is not to reveal a method of God’s acting, and to reveal God’s righteousness is not to reveal a method of God’s making sinners righteous, but to reveal the righteousness itself. This righteousness is also said to be of God by faith, that is, sinners become partakers of it by faith. The righteousness of God, then, is not a method of justification, but the thing itself which God has provided, and which He confers through faith. Nor can the expression, ‘the righteousness of God,’ in the tenth chapter, signify God’s method of justification. It is true the Jews were ignorant of God’s method of justification, but that is not the thing which is there asserted. They were ignorant of the righteousness which God had provided for the guilty, and, in consequence, went about to establish their own righteousness. What is there meant by God’s righteousness, is seen by the contrast. It is opposed to their own righteousness. Now, it was not a method of justification that the Jews went about to establish, but it was their own righteousness which they endeavored to establish — a righteousness in which they trusted, of their own working. If so, the righteousness of God contrasted with this must be, not a method of justification, but the righteousness which God confers on His people through faith. To establish a man’s righteousness is not to establish a method with respect to this, but to establish the thing itself.

To say that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, because that in it is revealed a divine method of justification, or the justification which God bestows, leaves the great question which immediately presents itself utterly without an answer. It gives no light to the reader as to what the Gospel reveals. It is only in general a Divine scheme of justification. But the language itself, Romans 1:17, leaves no such uncertainty. It shows that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, because it reveals God’s righteousness, — that righteousness which fulfills the demands of His law, which His justice will accept, and which is upon all them that believe.

Mr. Tholuck explains the phrase, the righteousness of God, thus: — ’The Gospel makes known a way to that perfect fulfillment of the law which is required by God.’ What is the meaning of this exposition? It does not give the true meaning, and may have a most erroneous import. The best that can be said for it is, that it is so dark, and vague, and equivocal, that it may elude condemnation on the principle of its not having any one definite meaning. It is more ambiguous than the answer of an oracle that has only two meanings, for it may have several. Does it mean that the Gospel reveals a way by which man may himself fulfill the law, so as to be perfectly righteous? If Mr. Tholuck does not mean this, the expression might mean it. Does it mean that the law is not yet fulfilled, but that the Gospel reveals a way in which it may be fulfilled? This is the most obvious sense. Does it mean that the Gospel reveals a way in which men perfectly fulfill the law by faith? This is evidently false, even according to Mr. Tholuck’s sentiments; for though faith were, as held forth by him, ‘the most excellent of virtues,’ he could not admit that it fulfills the law.

After this dark and vague account of the term righteousness we need not wonder at that most erroneous meaning which he affixes to it in chapter 4:3. f16 Mr. Stuart, in his translation of the Epistle, renders this phrase, in Romans 1:17, and 3:21, ‘The justification which is of God,’ and in His explanation of it, the justification which God bestows, or the justification of which God is the author.’ He observes that this ‘is a phrase among the most important which the New Testament contains, and fundamental in the right interpretation of the Epistle before us.’ This is true; and the effect of his misunderstanding the proper signification of the original word in these passages, and rendering it justification instead of righteousness , appears most prominently in several of his subsequent interpretations especially as shall afterwards be pointed out in the beginning of the fourth chapter, where, like Mr. Tholuck, he entirely misrepresents the doctrine of justification. His translation he endeavors to defend at some length; but none of his allegations support his conclusion.

The proper meaning of the original word in ch. 1:17, and 3:21, which he makes justification, is righteousness; and this meaning will apply in the other passages where it is found. In the New Testament it occurs ninety-two times, and, in the common version, is uniformly rendered righteousness. It occurs thirty-six times in the Epistle to the Romans, in which Mr. Stuart has sixteen times translated it righteousness. But he appears to have been led to adopt the translation he has given in the above verses from the supposed necessity of the case; and, indeed, this was necessary for Mr. Stuart, who not only denies expressly the imputation of Adam’s sin to his posterity, but also the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to believers. This should put Christians on their guard against a translation founded on the denial that Christ’s righteousness is placed to their account for salvation, a doctrine which Dr. Macknight most ignorantly maintains is not to be found in the Bible.

Mr. Stuart observes that there are three expressions, viz., dikaiosu>nh, dikai>wma , and dikai>wsiv , all employed occasionally in the very same sense, viz., that of justification, i.e., acquittal, pardon, freeing from condemnation, accepting and treating as righteous.’ There may be situations in which the one might supply the place of the other, but they have a clear characteristic difference. ‘The difference appears to be this: dikaiosu>nh , the original word in the verse before us, is not justification; it signifies justice or righteousness in the abstract; that is, the quality of righteousness. It signifies also complete conformity or obedience to the law; for if there be any breach of the law, there is no righteousness.

Dikai>wma , as distinguished from this, signifies an act of righteousness, or some righteous deed. It is accordingly used for the ordinances of God, because they are His righteous appointments, and perhaps because they typically refer to the true ‘righteousness of God.’ In a few places it may be an equivalent to dikaiosu>nh. Dikai>wsiv, is neither the one nor the other of the above. It is the act of being justified by this righteousness when on trial. Obedience to law is a different thing from being cleared, or acquitted, or justified, when tried by law. A man is justified on the ground of righteousness. There is the same difference between dikaiosu>n , and dikai>wsiv, that there is in English between righteousness and justification.

In support of his explanation of the phrase, ‘the righteousness of God,’ namely, that it is the justification which God bestows, Mr. Stuart, in the following observations, shows a wonderful misapprehension of the doctrine of those who oppose the view of it which he adopts. On verse he says, ‘What that dikaiosu>nh de< qeou~ (righteousness of God) is, which is cwri>v no>mou (without law), the Apostle next proceeds explicitly to develop. Dikaiosu>nh de... jIhsou~ Cristou~ , the justification which is of God by faith in Jesus Christ. This explanation makes it clear as the noonday sun that dikaiosu>nh qeou~ (righteousness of God), in this connection, does not mean righteousness, or the love of justice, as an attribute of God. For in what possible sense can it be said that God’s righteousness or justice (as an essential attribute) is by faith in Christ?

Does He possess or exercise this attribute, or reveal it, by faith in Christ?

The answer is so plain; that it cannot be mistaken,’ p. 157. Why does Mr. Stuart labor to prove that the phrase in question cannot here mean the justice of God, or a Divine attribute? Does any man suppose that it has here such a sense? We do not understand it of a Divine attribute, but of conformity to law by a Divine work. This righteousness is God’s righteousness, not because it is an attribute of His nature, but because it is the righteousness which God has provided and effected for His people, through the obedience unto death of His own Son. The word dikaiosu>nh , indeed, always signifies righteousness; but it may mean either a personal attribute, or conformity to law. Does not Mr. Stuart himself afterwards explain the phrase in this latter sense? Why, then, does he take it for granted that if it does not signify justification, as he makes it here, it must signify a personal attribute of God? In ch. 4:3, 6, and elsewhere, he admits that the word dikaiosu>nh (righteousness) cannot signify justification, but must be understood as denoting righteousness. ‘To say,’ he observes (p. 177), ‘was counted for justification would make no tolerable sense.’ But nothing can be more obvious than that the Apostle is in the fourth chapter treating of the same thing of which he is treating in this chapter, from the 21st verse. In all this connection he is still speaking of this dikaiosu>nh (righteousness) in the same view. Having here spoken of God’s righteousness, he goes on to show that it was through this very righteousness that Abraham was justified The justification of Abraham, instead of being an exception to what he had been teaching, as if it had been on the ground of Abraham’s own obedience to law, is appealed to by the Apostle as a proof, as well as an illustration and example, of justification by God’s righteousness received by faith.

It makes nothing in favor of Mr. Stuart that there may be instances in which the word dikaiosu>nh (righteousness) may be interpreted by the word justification, so as to make sense. There is no signification that may not be ascribed to any word upon this principle. A word may make sense in a passage, when it is explained in a meaning directly the opposite of its true meaning. This principle the reader may see fully established in the writings of Dr. Carson. Several instances have been alleged from the Septuagint, in which it is asserted that dikaiosu>nh (has the meaning of goodness, etc.; but there is no instance there in which the word may not have its true meaning, and it is only ignorance of the import of the phrase, ‘righteousness of God,’ that has induced writers to give the term a different meaning. For instance, nothing at first sight appears more to countenance the idea that dikaiosu>nh (righteousness) expresses mercy than Psalm 51:14. How could David speak of righteousness, if God would deliver him from blood-guiltiness? He might well speak of goodness or compassion, but would not righteousness in God prevent him from being acquitted? Not so. The righteousness of God was what David looked to, — the same righteousness that is more clearly revealed by Paul in this Epistle. And well might David speak of that righteousness, when by it he was cleared from all the guilt of his enormous wickedness.

The word rendered ‘righteousness,’ Romans 1:17, and in the verse before us, signifies both justice and righteousness; that is to say, conformity to the law. But while both of these expressions denote this conformity, there is an essential difference between them. Justice imports conformity to the law in executing its sentence; righteousness, conformity in obeying its precepts, and this is the meaning of the word here. If these ideas be interchanged or confounded, as they often are, the whole scope of the Apostle’s reasoning will be misunderstood.

In various parts of Scripture this phrase, ‘the righteousness of God,’ signifies either that holiness and rectitude of character which is the attribute of God, or that distributive justice by which He maintains the authority of His law; but where it refers to man’s salvation, and is not merely a personal attribute of Deity, it signifies, as in the passage before us, ver. 21, that fulfillment of the law, or perfect conformity to it in all its demands, which, consistently with His justice, God has appointed and provided for the salvation of sinners. This implies that the infinite justice of His character requires what is provided, and also that it is approved and accepted; for if it be God’s righteousness, it must be required, and must be accepted by the justice of God. The righteousness of God, which is received by faith, denotes something that becomes the property of the believer. It cannot, then, be here the Divine attribute of justice, but the Divine work which God has wrought through His Son. This, therefore, determines the phrase in this place as referring immediately not to the Divine attribute, but to the Divine work. The former never can become ours. This also is decisive against explaining the phrase as signifying a Divine method of justification. The righteousness of God is contrasted with the righteousness of man; and as Israel’s own righteousness, which they went about to establish, was the righteousness of their works, not their method of justification, so God’s righteousness, as opposed to this, Romans 10:3, must be a righteousness wrought by Jehovah. As in Corinthians 5:21, the imputation of sin to Christ is contrasted with our becoming the righteousness of God in Him, the latter cannot be a method of justification, but must intimate our becoming perfectly righteous by possessing Christ’s righteousness, which is provided by God for us, and is perfectly commensurate with the Divine justice.

No explanation of the expression, ‘the righteousness of God,’ will at once suit the phrase and the situation in which it is found in the passage before us, but that which makes it that righteousness, or obedience to the law, both in its penalty and requirements, which has been yielded to it by our Lord Jesus Christ. This is indeed the righteousness of God, for it has been provided by God, and from first to last has been effected by His Son Jesus Christ, who is the mighty God and the Father of eternity. Everything that draws it off from this signification tends to darken the Scriptures, to cloud the apprehension of the truth in the children of God, and to corrupt the simplicity that is in Christ. To that righteousness is the eye of the believer ever to be directed; on that righteousness must he rest; on that righteousness must he live; on that righteousness must he die; in that righteousness must he appear before the judgment-seat; in that righteousness must he stand for ever in the presence of a righteous God. ‘I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be joyful in my God: for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,’ Isaiah 61:10.

The righteousness of God provided for the salvation of sinners, like that salvation itself, differs essentially from all other righteousness that ever was or can ever be performed. It differs entirely from the righteousness of men and angels in itsAUTHOR, for it is the righteousness not of creatures but of the Creator. ‘I the Lord have created it, ’ Isaiah 45:8. It is a Divine and infinitely perfect righteousness, wrought out by Jehovah Himself, which in the salvation of man preserves all His attributes inviolate. It is the righteousness of God, as of the Godhead, without respect to distinction of personality, and strictly so in that sense in which the world is the work of God. The Father created it by the Son, in the same way as by the Son He created the world: and if the Father effected this righteousness because His Son effected it, then His Son must be one with Himself. Peter, in his Second Epistle, ch. <600101> 1:1, according to the literal rendering of the passage, calls this righteousness the righteousness of Jesus Christ. ‘Simon Peter, a servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us, in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.’ Most of the places in which the righteousness of God is spoken of, refer to it as the righteousness of the Fatherly as in 2 Corinthians 5:21, where the Father is distinguished from the Son; but in this passage of Peter it is explicitly declared to be the righteousness of the Son, where He is expressly called God. As it would be a palpable contradiction to assert that the work of creation could be executed by any creature, for He that built all things must be God, so the righteousness of God could not be ascribed to Jesus Christ unless He had been in the beginning, ‘God,’ ‘with God,’ and ‘over all, God blessed for ever.’

It was dueling His incarnation that the Son of God wrought out this righteousness. Before He came into the world, He was not a member or subject of the kingdom of heaven, — He was its Head. He then acted in the form of God, — that is to say, as the Creator and Sovereign of the world, — but afterwards in the form of a servant. Before that period He was perfectly holy, but that holiness could not be called obedience. It might rather be said that the law was conformed to Him, than that He was conformed to the law. His holiness was exercised in making the law, and by it governing the world. But in His latter condition it was that law by which He Himself was governed. His righteousness or obedience, then, was that of infinitely the most glorious person that could be subjected to the law. It was the righteousness of Emmanuel, God with us; and this obedience of the Son of God in our nature conferred more honor on the law than the obedience of all intelligent creatures. He gave to every commandment of the law, and to every duty it enjoined, more honor that it had received of dishonor from all the transgressors that have been in the world. When others obey the law, they derive from that obedience honor to themselves; but on the occasion now referred to, it was the law that was honored by the obedience of its Sovereign. ‘The Lord,’ says the Prophet, ‘is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honorable,’ Isaiah 42:21.

The obedience of Jesus Christ magnified the law, because it was rendered by Divine appointment. He was chosen of God, and anointed for this end.

He was Jehovah, whom Jehovah sent. ‘Lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah; and thou shalt know that Jehovah of Hosts hath sent Me unto thee,’ Zechariah 2:10,11. And when it is considered that the most astonishing work of God which can be conceived is the incarnation of His Son, and His sojourning in the world, and that these wonders were performed in order to magnify the law, it necessarily follows that it is impossible to entertain too exalted an idea of the regard which God has for the character of His holy law. In itsAUTHOR, then, this righteousness is immeasurably distinguished from any other righteousness.

And not Only does it differ in itsAUTHOR it differs also in itsNATURE, in itsEXTENT, in itsDURATION, and in itsINFLUENCE, from all other righteousness that ever was or ever can be performed.

In itsNATURE this righteousness is twofold, fulfilling both the precept of the law and its penalty. This, by any creature the most exalted, is absolutely impossible. The fulfillment of the law, in its precepts, is all that could be required of creatures in their original sinless condition. Such was at the beginning the state of all the angels, and of the first man. But the state of the Second Man, the Lord from heaven, when He came into the world, was essentially different. Christ was made under the law, but it was aBROKEN LAW; and consequently He was made under its curse. This is not only implied when it is said, He was ‘made of a woman,’ who was a transgressor, but it is also expressly asserted that He was ‘made a curse for us,’ Galatians 3:13. Justice therefore required that He should fulfill not only the precept, but also the penalty of the law, — all that it threatens, as well as all that it commands.

A mere creature may obey the precept of the law, or suffer the penalty it denounces, but he cannot do both. If he be a transgressor, he may be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord; and God, whose vengeance he is suffering, being to him an object of unmingled hatred and abhorrence, there can be no place for his repentance, his love, or obedience. But Jesus Christ was capable at the same moment of suffering at the hand of God and of obeying the precept to love God. This was made manifest during the whole period of His incarnation, as well as by the memorable words which He uttered on the cross, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ We are here taught that the prediction by the Prophet, ‘Awake, O sword, against the man that is My fellow,’ was at that moment receiving its accomplishment. The sword of Divine justice, according to the prophetic declarations contained in the 22nd Psalm, was then piercing His in most soul, but still He addressed God as His God.

From this it is evident that, while suffering under the full weight of His Father’s wrath against the sins of His people, which He had taken upon Him, all the feedings both of love and confidence also expressed in the same Psalm were at that moment in full exercise. His righteousness, therefore, or conformity to the law, was at once a conformity in two respects, which could not have been exemplified but by Himself throughout the whole universe.

By the sufferings of Jesus Christ, the execution of the law was complete; while no punishment which creatures could suffer can be thus designated.

The law was fully executed when all the threatenings it contained were carried into effect. Those who are consigned to everlasting punishment will never be able to say, as our blessed Lord said on the cross, ‘It is finished.’

It is He only who could put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself By enduring the threatened punishment, He fully satisfied justice. In token of having received a full discharge, He came forth from the grave; and when He shall appear the second time, it shall be without sin, — the sin which He had taken upon Him, and all its effects, being for ever done away.

This fulfillment of the law, in its penalty, by the Son of God, is an end which cannot otherwise than through eternity be attained by the punishment of mere creatures. Sin, as committed against God, is an infinite evil, and request an infinite punishment, which cannot be borne in any limited time by those who are not capable of suffering punishment in an infinite degree. But the sufferings, as well as the obedience, in time, of Him who is infinite, are equivalent to the eternal obedience and sufferings of those who are finite.

The doctrine that sin is an infinite evil, and requires an infinite punishment, is objected to by the Socinians. They say that if each sin we commit merits eternal death — in other words, an infinite punishment — and since there are almost an infinite number of sins committed by men, then it must be said that they merit an almost infinite number of punishments, and consequently that they cannot be expiated but by a like number of infinite satisfactions. It is replied, that the infinite value of the death of the Redeemer equals an infinite number of infinite punishments.

For such is the nature of infinitude, that it admits of no degrees; it knows nothing of more or less; it cannot be measured; it cannot be augmented; so that ten thousand infinities are still only one infinite. And if Jesus Christ had suffered death as many times as the number of the sins of the redeemed, His satisfaction would not have been greater or more complete than by the one death which He suffered.

The death of the Son of God serves to magnify the law, by demonstrating the certainty of that eternal punishment, which, if broken, it denounces as its penalty. There are no limits to eternity; but when the Son of God bore what was equivalent to the eternal punishment of those who had sinned, He furnished a visible demonstration of the eternal punishment of sin.

But if nothing beyond the suffering of the penalty of the law had taken place, men would only have been released from the punishment due to sin.

If they were to obtain the reward of obedience, its precepts must also be obeyed; and this was accomplished to the utmost by Jesus Christ. Every command it enjoins, as well as every prohibition it contains, were in all respects fully honored by Him. In this manner, and by His sufferings, He fulfilled all righteousness The righteousness, therefore, of our God and Savior Jesus Christ is infinitely glorious. It is the righteousness of the Lawgiver; and, being in its character twofold, it differs entirely in its\parNATURE from all other righteousness, and is of an order infinitely higher than ever was or can be exemplified by any or all of the orders of intelligent creatures.

This righteousness differs also from all other righteousness in itsEXTENT.

Every creature is bound for himself to all that obedience to his Creator of which he is capable. He is under the obligation to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, and beyond this he cannot advance. It is evident, therefore, that he can have no superabounding righteousness to be placed in the way of merit to the account of another.

And, besides this, if he has sinned, he is bound to suffer for himself the whole penalty annexed to disobedience, no part of which, consequently, can be borne by him to satisfy for the transgression of others. He is not in possession of a life at his own disposal to lay down for them; and if he had laid it down, it being in that case forfeited for ever, he could not take it again. But the obedience of Jesus Christ, who is Himself infinite, as well as the punishment He suffered, being in themselves of infinite value, are capable of being transferred in their effects without any diminution in their respective values. His life, too, was His own; and as He suffered voluntarily, His obedience and sufferings, which were infinitely meritorious, might, with the most perfect regard to justice, be imputed to as many of those of whose nature He partook, as to the Supreme Ruler shall seem good.

This righteousness likewise differs from all other righteousness in its\parDURATION. The righteousness of Adam or of angels could only be available while it continued to be performed. The law was binding on them in every instant of their existence. The moment, therefore, in which they transgressed, the advantages derived from all their previous obedience ceased. But the righteousness of God, brought in by His Son, is an ‘everlasting righteousness,’ Daniel 9:24. It was performed within a limited period of time, but in its effects it can never terminate. ‘Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished — My righteousness shall before ever,’ Isaiah 51:6,8. ‘Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,’ <19B9142> Psalm 119:142. ‘By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified,’ Hebrews 10:14. ‘By His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption,’ Hebrews 9:12. In respect to its duration, then, this righteousness reaches back to the period of man’s fall, and forward through the endless ages of eternity.

The paramountINFLUENCE of this righteousness is also gloriously conspicuous. It is the sole ground of the reconciliation of sinners with God, and their justification before Him, and also of intercession with Him before the throne. ‘If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, ’ 1 John 2:1. It is the price paid for those new heavens and that new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness; for that kingdom prepared for those who are clothed with righteousness — a kingdom commensurate with the dignity of Him for whom it was provided. The paradise in which Adam was placed at his creation was a paradise on earth. It might be corrupted, it might be defiled, and it might fade away, all of which accordingly took place. But the paradise which, in virtue of the righteousness of God, is provided, and to the hope of which, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, His people are begotten, is an inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven. This righteousness, then, is the ransom by which men are delivered from going down to the pit of everlasting destruction, and the price of heavenly and eternal glory. It is the fine linen, clean and white, in which the bride, the Lamb’s wife, shall be arrayed, ‘for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.’ Man was made lower than the angels, but this righteousness exalts him above them. The redeemed people of God stand nearest to the throne, while the angels stand ‘round about’ them. They enter heaven clothed with a righteousness infinitely better than that which angels possess, or in which Adam was created.

The idea which some entertain, that the loss incurred by the fall is only compensated by what is obtained through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, is so far from being just, that the super abounding of the gain is unspeakable and immense. By the disobedience of the first Adam, the righteousness with which he was originally invested was lost for himself and all his posterity, and the sin which he had committed was laid to their charge. By the obedience of the second Adam, not only the guilt of that one offense is removed, but pardon also is procured for all the personal transgressions of the children of God; while the righteousness, infinitely glorious, which He wrought, is placed to their account. By the entrance of sin and death, the inheritance on earth was forfeited. By the gift of the everlasting righteousness, their title to eternal glory in heaven is secured. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification.

For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ, ch. v. 16, 17.

The evidence of the truth of Christianity might be rested on this one point —THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD provided for the salvation of sinners.

How could such an idea as that of a vicarious everlasting righteousness, to meet all the demands of aBROKEN LAW, have ever entered into the conception of men and angels? If it could have suggested itself to the highest created intelligence, and had the question been asked of all the host of heaven standing around the throne of God, ‘on His right hand and His left,’ Who shall work this righteousness? what answer could have been given? what expedient for its accomplishment could have been proposed by one or all of them together? All must have stood silent before their Maker. As no one in heaven, nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book with the seven seals, neither to look thereon, — which was a subject of such bitter lamentation to the beloved disciple, — so no one, neither man nor angel, nor all the elect angels together, could have wrought the righteousness necessary for the justification of a sinner.

He alone who is Emmanuel, God with us, who alone could open that book and loose the seals thereof, could ‘bring in this everlasting righteousness,’ of which it may be truly said that eye had not seen it, nor ear heard it, neither had it entered into the heart of man, till God revealed it by His Spirit. Without law. — This righteousness is ‘the righteousness of God,’ and altogether independent of any obedience of man to law, more or less. As the righteousness of God is the perfect fulfillment which the law demands, it is evidently impossible that any other righteousness or obedience can be added to it or mixed with it. On the cross, Jesus Christ said, It is finished, — that is, it is perfected. To exhibit thisPERFECTION, this fulfillment of the law, this grand consummation, is the great object of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. <580601> 6:1. And Christ, it is said, Romans 10:4, is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. In each of these passages the word used for ‘perfection,’ or ‘end,’ is, in the original, the same as the word ‘finished,’ used on the cross. And those persons are described as ignorant of God’s righteousness who go about to establish their own righteousness, and have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. ‘Without law,’ then, signifies, not without perfect obedience, but without any regard whatever to the obedience of man to the law. The obedience which the believer is enabled to render to the law has no part in his justification, nor could it justify, being always imperfect. The Apostle had, in the foregoing verse, affirmed that by his obedience to the law no man could be justified. He establishes the same truth in the 28th verse of this chapter, and in the fifth verse of the fourth chapter, in a manner so explicit, as to place his meaning beyond all question. In the same sense he declares, Galatians 3:21, that ‘if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.’ And again, he affirms, Galatians 2:21, ‘If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.’ It is needless here to dispute, as many do, about what law the Apostle alludes to, whether moral or ceremonial. It is to the law of God, whether written or unwritten, — whatever is sanctioned by His authority, whether ceremonial or moral, — all of which have been fulfilled by the righteousness of God, Matthew 3:15.

The righteousness of God is now manifested, — that is, clearly discovered, or made fully evident. It was darkly revealed in the shadows of the law, and more clearly in the writings of the Prophets; but now it is revealed in its accomplishment. It was manifested in the life and death of Jesus Christ, and was, by His resurrection from the dead, openly declared on the part of God. By Him, who was God manifest in the flesh, it was wrought out while He was on earth. He fulfilled all righteousness; not one jot of the law, either in its precepts or threatenings, passed from it; but all was accomplished; and of this righteousness the Holy Spirit, when He came, was to convince the world, John 16:8.

This righteousness is manifested in the doctrine of the Apostles. Besides being introduced so frequently in this Epistle to the Romans, it is often referred to and exhibited in the other apostolical Epistles. To the Apostles was committed the ministration of the new dispensation characterized as the ‘ministration of righteousness,’ 2 Corinthians 3:9. By that dispensation, and not by the law, righteousness is come, Galatians 2:21.

In writing to the Philippians, Paul calls it ‘the righteousness which is of God by faith, ’ and contrasts it with his own righteousness, which is of the law, Philippians 3:9. Peter addresses his Second Epistle to those who had obtained precious faith in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 1:1. In one word, besides expressly naming it in many places under the designation of righteousness, the grand theme of the writings of the Apostles, as well as of their preaching, was the obedience and sufferings even unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Him they declared to be ‘the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth; ‘while they exposed the error of such as went about to establish their own righteousness, and did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God.

Being witnessed by the law. — In the first part of this verse, ‘without law,’ where the article is wanting, signifies law indefinitely, — whatever has been delivered to man by God as His law, and in whatever way; but here, with the article, it refers to the five books of Moses, thus distinguished from the writings of the Prophets, according to the usual division of the Old Testament Scriptures, and adopted by our Lord, Luke 24:44. This righteousness was obscurely testified in the first promise respecting the bruising of the serpent’s head. It was expressly named in the declaration of the manner of Abraham’s justification, where it is recorded that he believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness, Genesis 15:6; as also in the covenant which God made with him, of which the sign — that is, circumcision — was a seal or pledge of the righteousness which is by faith; and when it was promised that the blessing of Abraham, which is this righteousness, was to come on all nations; Genesis 12:3. It was intimated in the writings of Moses, in every declaration of the forgiveness of sin, and every call to repentance.

All the declarations of mercy that are to be found in the law of Moses belong to the Gospel. They are all founded on the Messiah and His righteousness, and are made in consequence of God’s purpose to send His Son in the fullness of time into the world, and of the first promise respecting the seed of the woman.

The righteousness of God was witnessed not only in all the declarations of mercy and calls to repentance, but also by the whole economy of the law of which Moses was the mediator. Abraham was chosen, his posterity collected into a nation, and a country appropriated to them, that from the midst of them, according to His promise, God might raise up a Prophet, who, like unto Moses, was to be a Lawgiver and Mediator, to whom, turning from Moses, they should listen so soon as He appeared, Deuteronomy 18:15,19. The law of everlasting obligation was given to that nation, and renewed after it had been broken by them, and then solemnly deposited in the ark of the testimony, in token that it should be preserved entire, and in due time fulfilled by him of whom the ark was a type.

The sacrifices offered by the patriarchs, and the whole of the ceremonial law in all its typical ordinances and observances, bear their direct though shadowy testimony to the righteousness of God, of which Noah was alike a preacher and an heir, 2 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 11:7.

The righteousness of God was witnessed by the Prophets. Of their testimonies to it the following are a few examples from the Psalms: — ’Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness.’ Psalm 51:14. ‘My mouth shall show forth Thy righteousness and Thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only. Thy righteousness, also, O God, is very high. My tongue also shall talk of Thy righteousness all the day long,’ Psalm 71:15,16,19,24. ‘Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Righteousness shall go before Him, and shall set us in the way of His steps,’ Psalm 85:10,13. ‘In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted,’ Psalm 89:16. ‘Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,’ <19B901> Psalm 119, 142. ‘They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness, and shall sing of Thy righteousness,’ <19E507> Psalm 145:7.

The righteousness of the Messiah, as connected with salvation, is the constant theme of the Prophets, especially of Isaiah. ‘The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honorable,’ Isaiah 42:21. ‘Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it,’ Isaiah 45:8. The heavens were to drop down this righteousness, and the skies were to pour it down, while men’s hearts, barren like the earth without rain, were to be opened to receive it by faith, having no part in doing anything to procure the gift. ‘Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength: In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory,’ Isaiah 45:24,25. ‘I bring near My righteousness; it shall not be far off, and My salvation shall not tarry; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel My glory,’ Isaiah 46:13. ‘My righteousness is near; My salvation is gone forth — My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, ’ Isaiah 51:5,7. ‘By His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many,’ Isaiah 61:11. ‘This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord,’ Isaiah 54:17. ‘Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed,’ Isaiah 56:1. ‘For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations,’ Isaiah 61:11. ‘For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth And the Gentiles shall see Thy righteousness, and all kings Thy glory,’ Isaiah 62:1,2. ‘Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,’ Jeremiah 23:5. ‘Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteous, ’ Daniel 9:24. ‘It is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you,’ Hosea 10:12. ‘But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings,’ Malachi 4:2. To Balaam, who beheld the Savior at a distance, He appeared as a star; ‘ There shall come a Star out of Jacob,’ Numbers 24:17; while to Malachi, the last of the Prophets, on His nearer approach, He appeared as the sun.

Ver. 22. — When the righteousness of and, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all their that believe.

This righteousness of God, to which the law and the Prophets render their testimony, and which is now manifested in the Gospel, whereby man is justified, is not imputed to him on account of any work of his own in obedience to the law, but is received, as the Apostle had already declared in the 17th verse of chapter first, by faith alone. Faith is no part of that righteousness; but it is through faith that it is received, and becomes available for salvation. Faith is the belief of the Divine testimony concerning that righteousness, and trust in Him who is its Author. Faith perceives and acknowledges the excellency and suitableness of God’s righteousness, and cordially embraces it. ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen;’ because, though we do not yet possess what God has promised, and do not yet see it accomplished in ourselves, we see it accomplished in Jesus Christ, in whom what we hope for really exists. In respect to the promises not yet fulfilled, believers are now in the same situation as the fathers were of old respecting the unaccomplished promises in their day. Like them, they see these promises afar off, are persuaded of them, and embrace them. Believers thus flee to Christ and His righteousness as the refuge set before them in the Gospel.

By faith they receive Him as their surety, and place their trust in Him, as representing them on the cross, in His death, and in His resurrection.

Before we can have a right to anything in Christ, we must be one with Him; we must be joined with Him as our head, being dead to the law and married to Him; and as this union is accomplished through faith, His righteousness, which we receive, and which becomes ours in this way, is therefore called the righteousness which is by faith of Jesus Christ, Romans 3:22; the righteousness of faith, Romans 4:11,13; and the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, Philippians 3:9. It is called the righteousness of faith, because faith is the only instrument which God is pleased to employ in applying His righteousness. It is not called the righteousness of any other grace but of faith; we never read of the righteousness of repentance, of humility, of meekness, or of charity. These are of great price in the sight of God, but they have no office in justifying a sinner. This belongs solely to faith; for to him that worketh not, but believeth, is righteousness imputed; and faith is the gift of God.

This righteousness is unto all. — It is set before all, and proclaimed to all, according to the commandment of our blessed Lord, — ’ Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.’ Upon all, is connected with the words that follow, viz., them that believe. While it is proclaimed to all men, it is actually upon believers. It is not put into them, as their sanctification is brought in the soul by the Holy Spirit; but it is placed upon them as a robe: — ’He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, ’ Isaiah 61:10. It is the white raiment given by Jesus Christ to them who hear His voice, that they may be clothed, and that the shame of their nakedness may not appear, Revelation 3:18. It is the fine linen, clean and white, with which the bride, the Lamb’s wife, is arrayed; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints, Revelation 19:8. Thus Jesus Christ is made of God, to them that are in Him, righteousness, Corinthians 1:30. Righteousness. — ’ This, doubtless, is meant,’ says Archbishop Leighton, in his sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:30, ‘of the righteousness by which we are justified before God; and He is made this to us, applied by faith: his righteousness becomes ours. That exchange made, our sins are laid over upon Him, and His obedience put upon us. This, the great glad tidings, that we are made righteous by Christ: It is not a righteousness wrought by us, but given to us, and put upon us. This, carnal reason cannot apprehend, and, being proud, therefore rejects and argues against it, and says, how can this thing be? But faith closes with it, and rejoices in it; without either doing or suffering, the sinner is acquitted and justified, and stands as guiltless of breach, yea, as having fulfilled the whole law. And happy they that thus fasten upon this righteousness — they may lift up their faces with gladness and boldness before God: whereas the most industrious self-saving justiciary, though in other men’s eyes, and his own, possibly, for the present, he makes a glistering show, yet when he shall come to be examined of God, and tried according to the law, he shall be covered with shame, and confounded in his folly and guiltiness. But faith triumphs over self-unworthiness, and sin, and death, and the law; shrouding the soul under the mantle of Jesus Christ; and there it is safe.

All accusations fall off, having nowhere to fasten, unless some blemish could be found in that righteousness in which faith hath wrapt itself. This is the very spring of solid peace, and fills the soul with peace and joy. But still men would have something within themselves to make out the matter, as if this robe needed any such piecing, and not finding what they desire, thence disquiet and unsettlement of mind arise! True it is that faith purifies the heart and works holiness, and all graces flow from it: But in this work of justifying the sinner it is alone, and cannot admit of any mixture.’

Ver. 23. — (For there is no difference; For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.)

The Apostle introduces this parenthesis to preclude the supposition that the receiving of the righteousness of God is not indispensably necessary to every individual of the human race in order to his salvation, and lest it should be imagined that there is any difference in the way in which, or on account of which, it is received. As there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles with respect to their character as sinners, so there is no difference with respect to them as to the receiving of God’s righteousness — no difference either as to sin or salvation — all of them are guilty, and salvation through faith is published to them all. ‘For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him,’ Romans 10:12. Before men receive this righteousness, they are all under the curse of the broken law, and in a state of condemnation. Whatever distinction there may be among them otherwise, whether moral in their conduct, good and useful members of society, discharging respectably and decently the external duties of that situation in which they are placed, or having a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, and going about to establish their own righteousness, — or whether they be immoral in their lives, entirely abandoned to every vice, — they all stand equally in need of this righteousness — it is equally preached to them all — it is in the same manner bestowed upon all who believe. The reason of this is, that all have sinned — all, without one exception, as had been proved, are ‘under sin.’

The Apostle adds, as a consequence of this, that they have come short of the glory of God. They have come short, as in running a race, having now lost all strength ( Romans 5:6) and ability in themselves to glorify God, and attain to the possession and enjoyment of His glory. In the second chapter, the Apostle, in announcing the terms of the law, had declared that the way to obtain eternal life was in seeking for glory by patient continuance in well-doing, and that to those who work good, honor and peace would be awarded. In other words, ‘if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments; ‘but he had afterwards proved that in this way it was altogether unattainable, since by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified. In this place he more briefly repeats the same truth, that all men, without exception, being sinners, have come short of this glory, while he is pointing out the way in which, through the atonement of the Savior, and faith in that atonement, believers may now ‘rejoice in hope of the glory of God.’ All men, on the ground of their obedience to law, come short of glorifying God, for to glorify God is the whole of the law, — even the second table is to be obeyed to glorify God, who requires it. If they come short of obeying the law, they have, as sinners, come short of that glory, and honor, and immortality, in His presence, which can only be obtained through the ‘salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory,’ Timothy 2:10.

Ver. 24. — Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Justified. — Justification stands opposed both to accusation and condemnation. ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?’ ‘Them whom God effectually calleth, He also freely justifieth; not by infusing righteousness into them,’ as is well expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith, ‘but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous, — not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience, to them as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.’ Or, according to Dr. Owen On Justification, ‘This imputation is an act of God, ex mera gratia , of His mere love and grace, whereby, on the consideration of the mediation of Christ, He makes an effectual grant and donation of a true, real, perfect righteousness — even that of Christ Himself — unto all that do believe, and accounting it as theirs, on His own gracious act, both absolves them from sin, and granteth them right and title unto eternal life.’

The Helvetic Confession of Faith, adopted by the church at Geneva in 1536, and by all the evangelical churches in Switzerland thirty years afterwards, explains justification as follows: — ’The word, to justify, signifies, in the writings of the Apostle St. Paul, when he speaks of justification, to pardon sins, to absolve from guilt and punishment, to receive into grace, and to declare righteous. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to believers. — Our Savior is then charged with the sins of the world, He has taken them away, He has satisfied Divine justice. It is, then, only on account of Jesus Christ, dead and risen, that God, pacified towards us, does not impute to us our sins, but that He imputes to us the righteousness of his Son, as if it were ours; so that thenceforward, we are not only cleansed from our sins, but, besides, clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and by it absolved from the punishment of sins, from death, or from condemnation, accounted righteous, and heirs of eternal life. Thus, to speak properly, it is God only who justifies us, and He justifies us solely for the sake of Jesus Christ, not imputing to us our sins, but imputing to us the righteousness of Christ.’

In the Homily of the Church of England, on ‘justification,’ it is said — ’Justification is not the office of man, but of God; for man cannot make himself righteous by his own works, neither in part nor in whole; for that were the greatest arrogancy and presumption of man that Antichrist could set up against God, to affirm that a man might, by his own works, take away and purge his own sins, and so justify himself.

But justification is the office of God only, and is not a thing which we render unto Him, but which we receive of Him; not which we give to Him, but which we take of Him by His free mercy, and by the only merits of His most dearly beloved Son, our only Redeemer, Savior, and Justifier, Jesus Christ: So that the true understanding of this doctrine, we be justified freely by faith without works, or that we be justified by Christ only, is not that this our own act to believe in Christ, or this our faith in Christ which is within us doth justify us, and deserve our justification unto us (for that were to count ourselves to be justified by some act or virtue that is within ourselves), but the true understanding and meaning thereof is, that although we hear God’s word, and believe it, although we have faith, hope, charity, repentance, dread, and fear of God within us, do never so many works thereunto; yet we must renounce the merit of all our said virtues, of faith, hope, charity, and all other virtues, which we either have done, shall do, or can do, as things that must be far too weak, and insufficient, and imperfect; to deserve remission of our sins and our justification; and therefore we must trust only in God’s mercy, and that sacrifice which our High Priest and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God, once offered for us on the cross.’ Again, ‘This doctrine all old and ancient authors of Christ’s Church do approve. This doctrine adorneth and setteth forth the glory of Christ, and beateth down the glory of man; this whosoever denieth, is not to be accounted for a Christian man, nor for a setter forth of Christ’s glory, but for an adversary of Christ and His Gospel, and for a setter forth of man’s vain glory.’ The above quotations are not given in the way of authority, but as expressing the truth, and evincing the unanimity of believers of different communions on this all-important point. The sum of them is, that believers are absolved from condemnation, and entitled to eternal life, by the free and sovereign favor of God as its original first moving cause, without any desert in themselves, but solely in virtue of the righteousness of Christ, which includes an infinitely valuable price of redemption, a price that was paid for them by His obedience and sufferings to death.

There is no ‘condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.’ The moment a sinner is united to Him, the sentence of condemnation under which he formerly lay, is remitted, and a sentence of justification is pronounced by God. Justification, then, is at once complete — in the imputation of a perfect righteousness, the actual pardon of all past sins, the virtual pardon of future sins, and the grant and title to the heavenly inheritance. The believer is found in Christ having the righteousness which is of God, Philippians 3:9. ‘Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness, ’ Isaiah 45:24. He is complete in Christ, Colossians 2:10, who, by one offering, hath for ever perfected him, Hebrews 10:14.

In Him the law has been fulfilled, Romans 8:4; his sin has been made Christ’s, and the righteousness which God requireth by the law has been made his. ‘He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,’ 2 Corinthians 5:21.

On this passage Chrysostom remarks, ‘What word, what speech is this? what mind can comprehend or express it? For He saith, He made Him who was righteous to be made a sinner, that He might make sinners righteous.

Nor yet doth He say so neither, but that which is far more sublime and excellent. For He speaks not of an inclination or affection, but expresseth the quality itself. For He says not, He made him a sinner, but sin, that we might be made not merely righteous, but righteousness — and that the righteousness of God.’ When we are here said to be made the righteousness of God in Him, the meaning is, that we are made righteous in such a degree as admits of no addition. We could not be more righteous if our whole nature and constitution were made up of this one attribute, and there were nothing in us or about us but righteousness.

After the Lord Jesus Christ condescended to take on Him our sins, it would not have been just for Him not to account for them; His responsibility for them was then the same as if He had Himself sinned. On this proceeded God’s treatment of Him in hiding His face from Him, till the debt was paid. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; that is, being cursed, as the Apostle explains it.

As the sins of Israel were all laid on the head of the scapegoat, so ‘the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.’ ‘How could He die,’ says Charnock, ‘if He was not a reputed sinner? Had He not first had a relation to our sin, He could not in justice have undergone our punishment. He must, in the order of justice, be supposed a sinner really, or by imputation. Really He was not; by imputation, then, He was.’ On the whole, believers are accounted and pronounced righteous by God; and if so accounted by Him, it is and must be true in fact that they are righteous, for righteousness is imputed to them; that is, it is placed to their account — made over to them, because really theirs — and, therefore, without the smallest deviation from truth or fact — which is impossible in the great Judge — he will, from His throne of judgment in the last day, pronounce them ‘righteous, ’ Matthew 25:37,46.

The plan of salvation through the righteousness of Jesus Christ is so deep and astonishing an instance of Divine wisdom, that while it is not at all perceived by the wisdom of the world, it even in some measure lies hid from those who are savingly enlightened by it. Many Christians are afraid to give the scriptural language on this subject the full extent of its meaning; and instead of representing themselves as being made righteous, perfectly righteous; by the righteousness of the Son of Gods they look on their justification as merely an accounting of them as righteous while they are not so in reality. They think that God mercifully looks on them in a light which is more favorable than the strictness of truth will warrant. But the Scriptures represent believers as truly righteous, possessing a righteousness fully answerable to all the demands of the law. By their union with Christ they are ‘dead to sin,’ and the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them, ch. 8:4. They have paid its penalty and fulfilled its utmost demands, and are ‘made the righteousness of God in Him.’ God never accounts any one to be what he is not in reality; and as Christ righteousness is reckoned ours as well as Adam’s sin, believers ought to consider themselves as truly righteous in Christ as they are truly guilty in Adam. These two facts mutually reflect light on each other. Adam was the figure of Christ, and our sin in Adam is perfectly analogous to our righteousness in Christ, ‘For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous,’ ch. 5:19. Freely by his grace. — The expression is redoubled, to show that all is of God, and that nothing in this act of justification belongs to, or proceeds from man. It is perfectly gratuitous on the part of God, both as to the mode of conveyance and the motive on which it is vouchsafed. Nothing being required of man in order to his justification, in the way of price or satisfaction, and there being no prerequisite or preparatory dispositions to merit it at the hand of God, believers are therefore said to be justified by His grace, which excludes on their part both price and merit. And lest it should be imagined that grace does not proceed in its operation, as well as in the choice of its objects, consistently with its character of sovereign and unmerited goodness, the Apostle adds the word freely; that is, without cause or motive on the part of man. The word here rendered ‘freely’ is the same as that used by our Lord when He says, they hated Me without a cause, John 15:25. ‘Freely’ (gratuitously) ye have receded, freely give, Matthew 10:8; 2 Corinthians 11:7; 2 Thessalonians 3:8; ‘For naught’ (gratis), Revelation 21:6, and 22:17; or without price, as Isaiah 55:1. This term ‘freely’ in the most absolute manner excludes all consideration of anything in man as the cause or condition of his justification. The means by which it is received is faith; and, in the commencement of the next chapter, faith is placed in opposition to all works whatever, and in verse 16th of that chapter it is said, ‘Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace.’ Faith is the constituted medium through which man receives ‘the gift of righteousness;’ because, as Paul there affirms, it interferes not with the gratuitous nature of the gift. It is impossible to express more strongly than in this place, that justification is bestowed without the smallest regard to anything done by man. It cannot be pretended that it comes in consequence of repentance, or anything good either existing or foreseen in him. God ‘justifieth the ungodly,’ Romans 4:5. It comes, then, solely by grace — free, unmerited favor. ‘And if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace,’ Romans 11:6. This is said respecting the election of believers to eternal life, and equally holds, according to the passage before us, in respect to their justification. Speaking of the advocates of human merit, ‘What can they say,’ observes Luther, in answer to Erasmus, ‘to the declaration of St. Paul? Being justified freely by His grace. Freely, what does that word mean? How are good endeavors and merit consistent with a gratuitous donation? Perhaps you do not insist on a merit of condignity, but only of congruity. Empty distinctions. How does Paul in one word confound in one mass all the assertors of every species and of every degree of merit?

All are justified freely, and without, the works of the law. He who affirms the justification of all men who are justified to be perfectly free and gratuitous, leaves no place for works, merits, or preparations of any kind — no place for works either of condignity or congruity; and thus, at one blow, he demolishes both the Pelagians with their complete merits, and our sophists with their petty performances.’ Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. — The great blessing of justification is described above as proceeding from the free grace of God, which is the fountain from whence flow pardon, righteousness, and salvation, excluding all works, whether before or after faith. Here it is referred to the meritorious price provided by God, and that is the redemption which is in Christ Jesus For though it comes freely to man, yet it is through the redemption or purchase of the Son of God.

The word redemption signifies a buying back, and necessarily supposes an alienation of what is redeemed. In general, it imports a deliverance effected by a price, and sometimes a deliverance by power. In this last sense it is said, ‘Now these are Thy servants, and Thy people, whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy great power,’ Nehemiah 1:10. ‘I will redeem you with a stretched out arm,’ Exodus 6:6; Psalm 77:15. The resurrection of the body by an act of Divine power is called a redemption, Psalm 49:15; Romans 8:23. But, more generally, redemption signifies, in Scripture, deliverance by price, as that of slaves, or prisoners, or persons condemned, when they are delivered from slavery, captivity, or death, by means of a ransom. The word is here used in this last acceptation. Man had rebelled against God, and incurred the just condemnation of His law; but God, by His free grace, and of infinite compassion, hath substituted His own Son in the place of the guilty, and transferred from them to Him the obligation of their punishment. He hath made Him to suffer and die for their sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring them to Himself. ‘His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree,’ 1 Peter 3:18, 2:24. In this manner the Scriptures represent the blood or death of Jesus Christ as the ransom price. He came to give His life a ransom for many, Matthew 20:28; 1 Corinthians 6:20. ‘Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ,’ 1 Peter 1:18. ‘Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood,’ Revelation 5:9. ‘Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved; in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,’ Ephesians 1:5-8; Colossians 1:14. If, then, we are accounted righteous before God, because redeemed with a price paid by another, we receive what is not in ourselves, or in any measure from ourselves.

In every place in Scripture where our redemption in Christ is mentioned, there is an allusion to the law of redemption among the Jews. This law is contained in the Book of Leviticus, ch. 25, where we and regulations laid down for a twofold redemption, a redemption of persons and a redemption of possessions. The redemption of possessions or inheritances is regulated, verses 23-28, and that of persons, from verse 47 to the end of the chapter. In both these cases, none had a right to redeem but either the person himself who had made the alienation, or some other that was near of kin to him. But none of Adam’s family ever was, or ever will be, able to redeem himself or others. ‘None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him; for the redemption of their soul is precious,’ Psalm 49:7. It is too precious to be accomplished by such means; and had there been no other, it would have ‘ceased for ever.’ All mankind had been engaged in a warfare against God, and, as rebels, were condemned to death. Satan had taken the whole human race captive, and employed them in the drudgery of sin. From the sentence of death and the slavery of sin, it was impossible for any of them ever to have been set free, if Christ had not paid the ransom of His blood. But He, the Son of God, having from all eternity undertaken the work of redemption of those whom God gave Him, and being substituted by the everlasting covenant which God made with Him in their place, the right of redemption was vested in Him, by virtue of His covenant relation to them. And that nothing might be wanting either to constitute Him their legal kinsman-Redeemer, or to evidence Him to be so, He took on Him their nature, and in that nature paid their ransom to the last mite. Thus He performs the part of the Redeemer of His people, redeeming them from slavery and from death, and redeeming for them that inheritance which they had forfeited, and which they could not redeem for themselves. In some cases both these sorts of redemption were conjoined, and the person redeemed was espoused to him who redeemed her; and in this manner our Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed His Church. Having redeemed the heavenly inheritance for her, He has at the same time redeemed her from her state of bondage, and has betrothed her to Himself. ‘I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord,’ Hosea 2:19,20.

The Socinian talks of redemption as an act merely of God’s power, and of Christ as offering His sacrifice by presenting Himself in heaven after His death. But this is not redemption. There is not only a price paid, but that price is expressly stated. ‘In whom we have redemption through His blood.’ His blood, then, is the price by which we have redemption, ‘even the forgiveness of sins,’ Colossians 1:14. The same thing that is redemption, is in another point of view forgiveness; yet these two things in human transactions are incompatible. Where there is forgiveness, there is no price or redemption; where there is redemption there is no forgiveness. But in the salvation of the Gospel there are both. There is a price; but as God Himself has paid the price, it is forgiveness with respect to man, as much as if there had been no price. How wonderful is the wisdom of God manifested in the Gospel! Grace and justice, mercy and punishment, are blended together in the most perfect harmony.

Many seem to think that nothing can be essentially wrong in the views of those who speak of gratuitous salvation. Yet this may be most explicitly confessed, and the distinguishing features of the Gospel overlooked or even denied. Arians do not deny a gratuitous salvation. They contend that salvation is gratuitous, and boast that they are the only persons who consistently hold this doctrine. Calvinists, they say, have not a God of mercy: He gives nothing without a price. Their God they boast, is a God of mercy; for He pardons without any ransom. Now the glory of the Gospel is, that grace reigns through righteousness. Salvation is of grace; but this grace comes to us in a way ofRIGHTEOUSNESS. It is grace to us; but it was brought about in such a way that all our debt was paid. This exhibits God as just, as well as merciful. Just; in requiring full compensation to justice; and merciful, because it was He, and not the sinner, who provided the ransom. He who is saved, is saved without an injury to justice. Salvation is in one point of view forgiveness, but in another it is redemption.

Still, however, it is urged, that though it is here said that God justifies man freely by His grace, yet, as a price has been paid for it, this takes away from the freeness of the gift. But He who pays the ransom is one and the same, as has just been observed, with Him who justifies; so that the freeness of the blessing on the part of God is not in the smallest degree diminished. This proves that the doctrine of a free justification, through an atonement, rests entirely on the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ; on which also rests the transfer of His righteousness to the guilty; for, as has already been shown, no mere creature can have the least particle of merit to transfer to another. Every creature is bound for himself to fulfill the whole law. After doing all that is possible for him in the way of obedience, he must confess himself to be an unprofitable servant, Luke 17:10.

This redemption is in, or by, Christ Jesus. — It is wholly in Him, and solely accomplished by Him. Through the period of His ministry on earth, His disciples who followed Him were not aware of the work He was accomplishing. During His agony in the garden they were asleep. When seized by His persecutors to be put to death, they all forsook Him and fled. ‘Behold,’ says He, ‘the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone.’ No one participated or bore any share with Him in that great work, which, according to His appeal to His Father, on which He founded the petitions He offered for Himself and His people, He alone had consummated: ‘I have gloried Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.’

Ver. 25. — When God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.

In the end of the preceding verse, the Apostle had said that believers are justified freely by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This redemption he here further explains. God hath set forth His Son to be a propitiatory sacrifice to make satisfaction to His justice.

The expression, set forth, means to exhibit to public view — to place before the eyes of men — to manifest, — according as it is said, ‘Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you,’ 1 Peter 1:20. To be a propitiation. — Some understand this as meaning a propitiatory, signifying the mercy-seat, as the same word is translated, Hebrews 9:5; some as a propitiatory sacrifice, which is to be preferred. But it comes to the same thing, if, according to our translation, it be rendered propitiation, considering the word to be the adjective taken substantively. And this is countenanced by 1 John 2:2, and 4:10, though a different word is employed, but of the same derivation. By a propitiation is meant that which appeareth the wrath of God for sins and obtains His favor, as it is said, Hebrews 2:17, where the corresponding verb is used, to make reconciliation for (to propitiate) the sins of the people; and ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’ He was thus pacified towards believers in Jesus Christ, and made favorable to them, the demands of His law and justice being satisfied, and every obstruction to the exercise of His mercy towards them removed. This propitiation of Christ was typified by the propitiatory sacrifices whose blood was shed, and by the mercy-seat, which was called the propitiatory, that illustrious type of Christ and His work, covering the ark in which the law to be fulfilled by Him was deposited, and on it, and before it, the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled by the high priest. Through faith in His blood. — This propitiation was made by blood, by which is to be understood all the sufferings of Christ, and, above all, His death, by which they were consummated. And this becomes a propitiation to us through faith in His blood, — that is, when we believe that His death is a sacrifice which make atonement for us, and when we rest on it as a sufficient answer to all accusations against us of the law of God, which in the punishment of death it demanded for sin, for ‘without shedding of blood is no remission.’

The expression, ‘through faith in His blood,’ limits to believers the effect of this propitiation. f19 God hath not only set forth His Son to be a propitiatory sacrifice, to be available through faith in His blood, but also hath done this to declare or manifest His righteousness. Righteousness. — Some here translate this word faithfulness, or the righteousness of the character of God, or veracity; some goodness; some holiness; some pardoning mercy. But all are wrong, and such translations are opposed to the sense of the passage. It is righteousness, namely, the righteousness of God, on account of which the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, ch. 1:17, to which the Apostle had recurred in the 21st and 22nd verses of this chapter, declaring that it is now manifested. ‘Righteousness’ in the above passages is the same as in the one before us, and in the following verse. In the 21st and 22nd verses, the expression employed is the ‘righteousness of God;’ and in this and the following verse, ‘His righteousness.’ Is it then to be supposed that, in repeating the same expression four times in the same breath, and with a view to establish the same truth, the Apostle used it in various senses, — first, as that righteousness which fulfills the law which God has provided for sinners; and then as the faithfulness, or goodness, or holiness, or mercy, or justice of God, or the righteousness of His character? — ideas entirely different from the former. That the meaning of the expression, ‘His righteousness,’ is the same in this and the following verse as that of the ‘righteousness of God’ in verses 21, 22, appears unquestionable, from the reason given in this 25th verse for setting forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation for sin. This, as is twice repeated, first here, and then in the following verse, was for the purpose of declaring or manifesting God’s righteousness. In the 21st verse it is asserted that the righteousness of God is now manifested; and in the 25th verse it is shown in what way it is now manifested, namely, by setting forth Christ as a propitiation for sin; and in the following verse the reason is given, namely, for what purpose it is now manifested. On the whole, then, notwithstanding that a different sense is generally affixed to it by commentators, it appears clear that the signification of the expression ‘righteousness’ is the same in each of these four verses, which stand in so close a connection. This signification being the same in all the above instances, and generally in the various other places in the Epistle, in which it so often occurs, entirely corresponds with the whole tenor of the Apostle’s discourse, which is to prove that a perfect righteousness is provided by God for man, who has lost his own righteousness, and on which he had so forcibly dwelt throughout the first and second chapters, and down to the 21st verse of the chapter before us. For the remission of sins that are past; — rather, as to, or with regard to, the passing by of sins before committed. Jesus Christ hath been set forth by God to be a propitiatory sacrifice, by which He brought in ‘everlasting righteousness,’ and by which it is now publicly manifested. On account, then, of this righteousness, even before it was introduced, God pardoned or remitted the sins of His people under the Old Testament dispensation.

These, having received the promises, although their accomplishment was yet afar off, were persuaded of them and embraced them; thus exercising faith in the blood of that great propitiatory sacrifice which was typified by the legal sacrifices, and through this faith they received the remission of their sins. Through the forbearance of God. — It was owing to God’s forbearance that He passed by the sins of His people before the death of Christ, till which time His law was not honored, and His justice had received no satisfaction. No sufficient atonement previous to that event was made for their sins, yet, through the forbearance of God, He did not immediately proceed to punish them, but had respect to the everlasting righteousness to be brought in, in the fullness of time, Daniel 9:24, by the propitiatory sacrifice of His Son, by which their sins were to be expiated. This verse beautifully indicates the ground on which Old Testament saints were admitted into heaven before the death of Christ.

The same truth is declared in the Epistle to the Hebrews 9:15, where the Apostle refers to the inefficacy of the legal sacrifices to take away sins, and speaks of the blood of Jesus, by which He entered into the holy place, and obtained eternal redemption for His people. ‘And for this cause He is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called (literally the called) might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.’ All the people on whom the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled, were sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, but those of them who were efficaciously called, and offered the sacrifices in faith of the promise of God, received a real remission of their sins. They were, like Noah, heirs of the righteousness which is by faith, and consequently partakers in its benefits. To the same purpose the Apostle speaks towards the end of that Epistle, of ‘the spirits of just men made perfect, ’ Hebrews 12:23. They had entered heaven on the pledge of that righteousness which was afterwards to be wrought; but until that took place, their title to heavenly glory had not been completed or perfected. f20 Hence the declaration at the end of the eleventh chapter of that Epistle, ‘that they without us should not be made perfect,’ that is, without the introduction of that righteousness in the days of the Gospel, the ministration of which was committed to the Apostles, 2 Corinthians 3:3.

Ver. 26. — To declare, I say at this time His righteousness; that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

God hath at this time also set forth His Son as a propitiatory sacrifice, in order to make manifest His righteousness, on account of which now, under the Gospel dispensation, He remits the sins of His people. He was always just in forgiving sin, but now the ground on which He forgives it is manifested, which vindicates His justice in doing so. The word here rendered just, is variously translated by those who do not understand God’s plan of salvation. Some make it to signify benevolent, kind, merciful, etc.; but it has here its own proper meaning, which it never deserts. God is just; He acts according to strict justice, as becometh His character, while He justifies, accounts, and treats as perfectly righteous all who believe in Jesus, who are thus one with Him, and consequently have His righteousness imputed to them. In all this we see the accomplishment of that prediction, ‘Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before Him, and shall set us in the way of His steps,’ Psalm 85:10.

From the last two verses we learn that, in the continuance of the legal dispensation, not with standing the sins of men, and also in the preservation of the nations, God had suspended the immediate effects of His justice. For if He had not acted in this manner, He would at once have put an end to that dispensation and to the economy of His providence with respect to the other nations in destroying both them and the people of Israel. During all that time which preceded the coming of His Son, He appeared to have forgotten the merited punishment of men’s sins, and all the world remained under the shadow of His forbearance. But when Jesus Christ came, God did two things: the first was to continue no longer an economy of patience, or of an apparent forgetfulness of sin, bat to bring in everlasting righteousness, by which He bestowed a true justification, which the law, whether written or natural, could not do, as it left men under guilt; but Jesus Christ has brought the true grace of God. The second thing which God has done, is to manifest, in the revelation of His righteousness, His avenging justice, by the shedding of the blood of His Son upon the cross. And thus he now appears to be just in Himself as the real avenger of sins, and, at the same time, the justifier of men, granting them a real remission of their sins by the imputation of His righteousness, which answers every demand of law and justice; whereas in the period of the forbearance of God, which continued to the time of Jesus Christ, God neither appeared just nor justifying. He did not appear just, for He suspended the effects of His justice. He did not appear the justifier, for He seemed only to suspend for a time the punishment of sins, and to leave men under the obligation of that punishment. But in the economy of Jesus Christ He manifests Himself both as just and as the justifier, for He displays the awful effects of His justice in the person of His Son in the work of propitiation, in the shedding of His blood; and, at the same time, He justifies His people, granting to them a true remission of their sins.

And when the greatness of Him by whom this expiation was made is considered, the glory of the Divine justice, as exhibited in His death, is elevated in the highest possible degree.

In the propitiation, then, of Jesus Christ, the justice of God in the salvation of sinners shines conspicuously. No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son hath in His own person revealed Him. Jesus Christ was set forth to display every attribute of Godhead. The wisdom and power of God are seen in the constitution and person of Christ and His work, incomparably more fully than in the creation of the heavens and the earth. Perfect justice, mercy, and love to sinners, are beheld nowhere else. Here God is revealed as infinite in mercy ; not so the God of man’s imagination, whose mercy is a mixture of injustice and weak compassion, and extends only to those who are supposed to deserve it. But in the incarnate God infinite mercy is extended to the chief of sinners. Here is pure mercy without merit on the part of man. And where do we find the perfection of Divine justice? Not in the God of man’s imagination, where justice is tempered with mercy, and limited in a thousand ways. Not even in the eternal punishment of the wicked shall we find justice so fully displayed as in the propitiation of Jesus Christ. He gave justice all it could demand, so that it is now shown to have secured the salvation of the redeemed in every age of the world as much as mercy itself. God is shown not only to be merciful to forgive, but He is faithful and just to forgive the sinner his sins. Justice, instead of being reduced to the necessity of taking a part from the bankrupt, has received full payment, and guarantees his deliverance. Even the chief of sinners are shown, in the propitiatory sacrifice of their Surety, to be perfectly worthy of Divine love, because they are not only perfectly innocent, but have the righteousness of God He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Ver. 27. — Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works?

Nay; but by the law of faith. Where is boasting then? — That is, according to the doctrine which the Apostle, by the Spirit of God, is teaching. There is no ground for it, or for ascribing salvation in any part or degree to the works of men. This shows that salvation was appointed to come to the redeemed through faith, for the very purpose of excluding all pretenses to allege that human merit has any share in it. This applies to all works, moral as well as ceremonial. If ceremonial works only were here meant, as many contend, and if moral works have some influence in procuring salvation, or in justification, then the Apostle could not have asked this question. Boasting would not have been excluded.

Paul had declared the only way in which a man can be ‘just with God.’ He had proved that it is not by His own righteousness, which is of the law, but by that righteousness which is received by faith. This is clear from what had been advanced in the preceding verse, from which this is an inference. If, then — as if he had said — God had purposed that men should have any group of boasting, He would not have set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, that thereby a way might be opened for justifying sinners, so that His justice might suffer no prejudice.

But now He has taken this course; and therefore the only way of justification precludes all boasting. ‘Paul is not here,’ says Calvin, ‘disputing merely concerning ceremonies, or any external works, but comprehends all works of every kind and degree. Boasting is excluded without all doubt, since we can produce nothing of our own that merits the approbation or commendation of God.

And here he is not speaking of limitation or diminution of merit, since he does not allow the least particle of it. Thus, if boasting of works be removed by faith, so that it takes away from man all praise, while all power and glory are ascribed to God, it follows that no works whatever contribute to the attainment of righteousness.’ By what law is boasting excluded? — It is not by that of works; for if works were admitted, in the smallest degree, to advance or aid man’s justification, he might in that proportion have ground of boasting. It is, then, by the law of faith; not by a law requiring faith, or as if the Gospel was a law, a new law, or, as it has been termed, a remedial or mitigated law; but the word law is here used in allusion to the law of works, according to a figure usual in the Scriptures. By the same figure Jesus says, ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe in Him whom He hath sent.’

Here faith is called a work, for a similar reason. Faith in the righteousness of Christ is, by the appointment of God, the medium of a sinner’s justification, without any consideration of works. This way of justification clearly shows that a man has no righteousness of his own, and that he can obtain nothing by means of conformity to the law, which can have no place, since he must admit that he is a transgressor. It impels him to flee out of himself, and to lay hold of the righteousness of another, and so leaves no room for glorying or boasting in himself, or in his own performances more or less. His justification is solely by faith; and it is clear that to believe a testimony, and rely on what has been done by another, furnish no ground for boasting. ‘Therefore it is by faith, that it might be by grace.’ The whole plan of salvation proceeds on this principle, ‘that no flesh should glory in His presence,’ but ‘that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.’ No ingenuity can ever make elevation by human merit consistent with the passage before us.

Ver. 28. — Therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Therefore we conclude. — In the 20th verse the Apostle had arrived at the conclusion, from all he had said before, that by works of law no man shall be justified in the sight of God. He had next pointed out the way of justification by faith in the atonement; and here He comes to His second grand and final conclusion, as the sum of all He had taught in the preceding part of the Epistle. Justified by faith. — Faith does not justify as an act of righteousness, but as the instrument by which we receive Christ and His righteousness. Believers are said to be justified by faith and of faith, and through faith, but never on account of faith. The declaration of James, that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only, is not in any respect opposed to the affirmation in the passage before us. The question with him is not how men may obtain righteousness for themselves in the presence of God, but how they are proved to be righteous; for he is refuting those who make a vain boast of having faith, when they have only what he calls a dead faith, — that is, faith only in profession, which he illustrates by a man’s having the appearance of compassion without the reality, and by referring to the body without the spirit or breath. f21 Without the deeds of the law, literally without works of law, for here, as in verse 31st, the article is wanting. — This does not signify, as Dr.

Macknight understands it, that ‘perfect obedience’ to law is not necessary; it signifies that no degree of obedience to law is necessary. Good works are necessary for the believer, and are the things which accompany salvation, but they are not in any respect necessary to his justification. They have nothing to do with it. This passage asserts not merely that men are justified by faith without perfect obedience to any law, but without any obedience of their own. It may likewise be remarked, that believers will not be acquitted at the last day on account of their works, but will be judged according to their works. But God does not justify any according to their works, but freely by His grace; and not by works, or according to the works of righteousness which they have done, Titus 3:5.

Ver. 29. — Is He the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles?

Yes, of the Gentiles also.

Rather, Is He the God of Jews only? Is He not also of Gentiles? The article before Jews and Gentiles, which is not in the original, makes the assertion respect Jews and Gentiles in general. In the sense of the passage, God is not the God either of the Jews or of the Gentiles in general; but He is the God of Jews and Gentiles indifferently, when they believe in His Son.

Ver. 30. — Seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

Seeing it is one God. — This assigns the reason why God must be the God of Gentiles as well as of Jews. If He justifies both in the same way, He must be equally the God of both. In the previous part of the discussion, Paul had shown that by works of law no flesh shall be justified, proving it first respecting Gentiles, and afterwards respecting Jews. Now he affirms that God’s method of justifying man applies equally to Jews and Gentiles.

This confirms his doctrine respecting the ruin of all men by sin, and of there being only one way of recovery by the righteousness of God received through faith. To urge this was likewise of great importance, with a view to establish the kingdom of Christ in all the earth, Romans 10:11,13. Having thus reduced the whole human race to the same level, it follows that all distinction among them must be from God, and not from themselves, — all standing on the same footing with respect to their works. There is but one God, and so but one way of becoming His people, which is by faith. By faith, and through faith. — It is difficult to see why the prepositions here are varied. Similar variations, however, occur in other places, where there appears to be no difference of meaning, as in Galatians 2:16, where justification, as applied to the same persons, is spoken of in the same sense, ‘knowing that a man is not justified by works of law, but through the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ.’

Ver. 31. — Do we then make void law through faith God forbid: yea, we establish law.

From the doctrine of justification by faith alone, which the Apostle had been declaring, it might be supposed that the law of God was made void.

This consequence might be drawn from the conclusion that a man is justified by faith without any respect to his obedience to law. This the Apostle denies, and, on the contrary, asserts that by his doctrine the law is established. The article is here wanting before law, indicating that the reference is not to the legal dispensation, or to the books of Moses, as in the last clause of verse 21, but to the general law of God, whether written or unwritten. Make void law. — ’ Bring it to naught,’ as the same word in the original is rendered, 1 Corinthians 1:28; or ‘destroy,’ Corinthians 6:13, and 15:26; ‘done away,’ 2 Corinthians 3:7-14; ‘abolished,’ Ephesians 2:15; 2 Timothy 1:10. Professors Tholuck and Stuart, not perceiving how the doctrine of the Apostle establishes the authority of the law, understand law in this place as signifying the Old Testament. This entirely destroys the meaning and use of the passage.

That the Old Testament teaches the same way of justification as that taught by the Apostles, is indeed a truth, an important truth, but not the truth here asserted. Mr. Stuart says, ‘How gratuitous justification can be said to confirm or establish the moral law (as this text has been often explained), it seems difficult to make out.’ There is not here the smallest difficulty. It is quite obvious in what way gratuitous justification by Christ establishes Law. Can there be any greater respect shown to the law, than that when God determines to save men from its curse, He makes His own Son sustain its curse in their stead, and fulfill for them all its demands? When a surety pays all that is due by a debtor, the debtor receives a gratuitous discharge: but has the debt, or the law that enforces the debt, been on that account made void? Here, as well as in so many other parts of his exposition of this Epistle, we discover the unhappy effect of this commentator’s misunderstanding the meaning of the expression at its commencement, the righteousness of God. That he should feel the difficulty he states above, is not surprising, for, according to the view he gives of justification, the law of God is completely made void.

Dr. Macknight explains establishing law to be making it ‘necessary in many respects.’ ‘The Gospel,’ he says, in his view and illustration of ch. 1:16, 17, ‘teaches, that because all have sinned, and are incapable of perfect obedience, God hath appointed, for their salvation, a righteousness without law; that is, a righteousness which does not consist in perfect obedience to any law whatever, even the righteousness of faith, that being the only righteousness attainable by sinners; and at the same time declares that God will accept and reward that kind of righteousness through Christ, as if it were a perfect righteousness.’ Accordingly, in this interpretation of the 21st verse of chapter 3, he says: ‘But now, under the Gospel, a righteousness appointed by God, as the means of the justification of sinners, without perfect obedience to law of any kind, is made known.’ In this manner, mistaking, like Professors Tholuck and Stuart, although in a different way, the import of the expression, ‘the righteousness of God,’ he misunderstands the whole train of the Apostle’s reasoning, from the 17th verse of the first chapter to the end of the fifth chapter, as well as its object; in this discussion on justification, and by his explanation, altogether makes void the law. Instead of making it ‘necessary in many respects,’ Dr. Macknight, as well as Dr. Stuart and Mr. Tholuck, by representing it as satisfied with an imperfect obedience, which does not meet the demands of any law, either human or Divine, makes it void in every respect. Such is the entire consistency among themselves of the doctrines of Scripture, that whenever any one of them is misunderstood, it invariably leads to the misunderstanding of the rest.

Many commentators, with more or less clearness, refer to the doctrine of sanctification, either in whole or in part, the Apostle’s denial that he makes void the law. According to them, it is not made void for this reason, because it convinces men of sin, and does not release from personal obedience to its precepts. That the doctrine of justification, by the imputation of Christs righteousness, does not release believers from obedience to the law, is a most important truth, which Paul fully establishes in the sixth chapter of this Epistle. On the contrary, it lays them under additional obligations to obey it, by furnishing additional motives to the love of God. But since their sanctification is always in this life imperfect, were there nothing else to meet the demands of the law, it would be made void — it would remain unfulfilled, both in its precept and penalty. In addition to this, the whole of the previous discussion regards the doctrine of justification, while not a word is said respecting sanctification. And it is evident that this verse is introduced to obviate an objection which might naturally present itself, namely, if man’s obedience, in order to his justification, be set aside, the law, which requires obedience, is made void.